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The McKinley Memorial, 
City Hall Plaza, Philadelphia. 



fo 



THE McKINLEY MEMORIAL a.s.c.v.v. H 

IN PHILADELPHIA 



HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT, AND ACCOUNT OF 
THE DEDICATION EXERCISES, 



INCLUDING 



THE ORATION 



BY 



THE HON. JAMES M. BECK 



PHILADELPHIA 

Printed for the Committee, Leslie W. Miller, Secretary 

320 South Broad Street 

1909 






.\A 



x^ 



Gift 
Publisher 



<■ 



Tke McKinley Monument 



\\'iLLiAM McKinley, JR-. Twenty-fifth President of 
the United States, died from a pistol shot by an assassm, 
September 14, 1901. The news was received in Philadel- 
phia with unusual sorrow, for Mr. McKinley had frequently 
visited the city where he had many warm freinds, and 
had as the champion of the political doctrine with which 
this' city has always been identified, made many public ad- 
dresses. 

Immediately a number of more or less tentative steps 
were taken to erect some memorialin the city commen- 
surate with the worth and dignity of the man and the office 
which he held. The Philadelphia Inquirer started a sub- 
scription for the purpose on the seventeenth, and in a 
short time collected more than $12,000, which was turned 
over to a General Committee which included all efforts at 
a memorial. 

This Committee was formed at the City Hall in re- 
sponse to invitations, sent out by Mayor Samuel H. Ash- 
bridge, to attend a meeting on October 17th, in the general 
reception room of his office. A large number of prominent 
citizens were present. Air. John H. Converse was elected 
chairman and subsequently chairman of the McKinley 

(3) 



Memorial Association whicli was then and there formed, 
witli the following vice-presidents: 

Mr. John A. Clark, 
Mr. Leslie W. Miller, 
Mr. E. Burgess Warren, 
Mr. James Elverson. 

The General Committee, in addition to the above- 
named gentlemen, as finally constituted, was as follows : 

Messrs. Justus C. Strawbridge, John Wanamaker, 
William ^^^ Justice, James M. Beck, Edward H. Coateb, 
Charles J. Cohen, Albert Kelsey, Theodore N. Ely, Thomas 
S. Harrison, George W. Kendrick, O. LaF. Perry, Mahlon 
N. Kline, W. W. Eoulkrod, Andrew Wheeler, Col. R. B. 
Beath, Dr. C. B. Dixon, Colonel J. Lewis Good, Colonel 
Theodore E. Wiedersheim, William R. Tucker, Harry L. 
Neall, John S. Stevens, F. D. LaLanne, Thomas Martin- 
dale, ILarold Peirce, Dr. Edward Brooks, Richard Y. Cook, 
William Wood, Dr. J. L. Shoemaker, Elihu C. Irvin, Percy 
C. Madeira, George L. Mitchell and Alan H. Reed. 

An Executive Committee consisting of the officers 
and the chairmen of the working committees was appointed 
and in addition the secretaries to these various committees 
were empowered to meet with the Executive Committee. 

Mr. Leslie W. Miller was elected secretar}^ of the 
General and Executive Committees and Mr. George C. 
Thomas, treasurer. The subscriptions were deposited 
with Drexel & Company, which allowed a liberal interest, 
sufficient in the end to pay the expenses of the Committee, 



so that all of the actual money contributed was expended 
for the monument. 

The following chairmen of committees were appointed 
at a meeting of the Executive Committee, the chairmen 
selecting their fellow-members. 

Finance, Mr. Justus C. Strawbridge. 
Organizations, General Louis Wagner. 
Publicity, Mr. James Elverson. 
Location, William W. Justice. 
Design, Mr. Leslie W. Miller. 

The last-mentioned committee, which had in charge 
the construction and erection of the monument, had as ad- 
ditional members Dr. James MacAlister, Mr. Edward H. 
Coates, Prof. Warren P. Laird, Mr. Charles M. Burns 
and Mr. Charles J. Cohen, secretary, 

A number of newspaper men were appointed on the 
Committee on Publicity. These were Dr. Alfred C. 
Lambdin, Mr. William McLean, Mr. Riter Fitzgerald, Mr- 
John L. McKenna, Dr. Talcott Williams, Colonel James 
Elverson, Jr., and Mr. Joseph M. Rogers, secretary. 

These committees went to work at once and meetings 
of the Executive Committee were held weekly in the 
Mayor's office. The total contributions were in excess of 
$32,000 and the contributors were numbered by thousands, 
with sums running all the way from a cent to a thousand 
dollars. The selection of a site was one of a good deal of 
complexity and it was finally determined to ask permission 
of Councils to place the Memorial in its present location on 



the south front of the City Hall with the expectation of 
finally placing it along the Parkway when completed. 
Councils passed an ordinance to this effect. 

The selection of a design proved the most tedious and 
complicated matter that came before the Committee. 
Several plans of procedure which were under contemplation 
were blocked by various considerations of professional 
etiquette and regulations. 

Eventually a public competition was held, and thirty- 
eight models were forwarded and placed on exhibition in 
the Export Exposition Building in West Philadelphia. 

A jury of award selected from without the member- 
ship of the Committee was chosen, with power to make five 
selections of the best models, which were to be awarded 
$500 each. This jury was composed of J. Q. A. Ward, 
the dean of American sculptors, chairman; Charles E. 
Dana, Theophilus P. Chandler, Karl Bitter and Frank 
Miles Day, all architects, artists or sculptors of the highest 
reputation. 

They reported to the General Committee, which ac- 
cepted their verdict, and the first award was made to Charles 
Albert Lopez, sculptor, and Albert H. Ross, architect, who 
bid together. The design was altered subsequently under 
the direction of the Committee on Design, acting under 
instructions of the General Committee. Mr. Lopez died 
before completing his work of modeling the sculpture and 
the work was admirably carried out by a successor, Mr. 
Isidore Konli, named hy his executors and approved by the 
Committee on Design. 



Although about five years elapsed between the award- 
ing of the contract and the completion of the statue, and its 
dedication June 6, 1908, this is considered rapid work 
under the circumstances. Similar work has elsewhere 
taken ten or fifteen years. 

The sculptor was obliged to proceed carefully with his 
work, and he succeeded, in the opinion of the Committee, in 
creating a monument which is one of the most artistic 
structures of the kind in the country. It is always more or 
less difficult to make of a portrait statue a satisfactory 
public monument. The frock coat of the American states- 
man seldom lends itself to picturesque treatment, but it is 
felt that in this instance the subject has been handled with 
rare discrimination. The statue of the dead President has 
been approved by many of his warmest friends. It shows 
him in characteristic attitude when making a public 
address, and literally millions have heard him speak. The 
pose is dignified and the expression on the face portrays 
that singular combination of , dignity, serenity and force- 
fulness which characterized McKinley the statesman. 

Below the statue sits a symbolic figure of Wisdom in- 
structing Youth, a group which is most effective in and of 
itself and which has been happily combined with the statue 
above to make an effective and dignified monument. It 
takes away the stiffness of the single figvire, adds womanly 
beauty and childish innocence and results in a composition 
which is singularly pleasing to the untutored as well as to 
the learned student of art. 

The statue will doubtless remain in its present position 



for some years. Eventually it is hoped to place it along 
the line of the Parkway when possibly the present monu- 
ment will be erected on a higher base, for which purpose 
there is a small sum remaining in the treasury of the Com- 
mittee. 

The dedication of the monument took place Saturday 
afternoon, June 6, 1908. A portion of the exercises w^ere 
held in front of the monument and the remainder in the 
Academy of Music. 

Before the formal exercises a luncheon was tendered 
the General Committee and distinguished guests in the 
banquet hall of the Union League at noon. President 
John H. Converse and Secretary Leslie W. Miller acted as 
hosts. The hall w^as beautifully decorated for the occasion 
and each guest wore a pink carnation, President McKinley's 
favorite flower. 

A list of the guests present at the luncheon follows : 



Dr. a. C. Abbott, 

Ernest F. Acheson, 

James L. .■Kllan, 

Major William J. Ashenfelter, 

William N. Ashman, 

Charles Y. Audenried, 

Andrew J, Barchfield, 

Charles F. Barclay, 

Ensign William S. Barger. U.S.N., 

Thomas W. Barlow, 

NoRRis S. Rarratt, 

Dudley Bartlett, 

Arthvr L. Bates, 

James C. Baxter, Jr., 

J. G. Beale. 

J. Augustus Beck, 



James M. Beck, 

Col. R. B. Beath, 

James A. Beaver, 

Dimner Beeber, 

W. R. Benson, 

H. H. Bingham, 

Hugh Black, 

Rudolph Blankenburg, 

C. L. Borie, Jr., 

Rev. C. M. Boswell, 

Rev. Linn Bowman, 

Gen. Wendell P. Bowman, 

John S. Boyd, 

Captain Breuer, of the German 

cruiser "Bremen," and two of his 

staff; 



Caspar W. Briggs, 

R. R. Bringhurst, 

J. Davis Brodhead, 

Dr. Edward Brooks, 

William H. Brooks, 

J. IIav Brown, 

Frank Shunk Brown, 

Charles N. Brl-mm, 

Charels W. Buckley, 

George B. Bunn, 

James F. Burk, 

George Burnham, 

James Butterworth, 

William W. Carr, 

John G. Carruth, 

H. Blrd Cassel, 

T. P. Chandler, 

Edwin Clark, 

John A. Clark, 

Henry Clay, 

Isaac H. Clothier, 

Edward H. Coates, 

Charles J. Cohen, 

Consul Dominican Republic, 

John H. Converse, 

Joel Cook. 

Allen F. Cooper, 

Colonel James B. Coryell, 

Joseph R. Craig, 

Theodore W. Cramp, 

John K. Cuming, 

T, DeWitt Cuyler, 

Morris Dallett. 

Rev. T. William D.widson, 

Rev. J. R. D.wies, 

Charles G. Davis. 

Major Howard A. Davis, 

Dr. R. H. Davis. 

Walter C. Delks, 



Captain Robert G. Denig, U.S.N., 

C. B. Dixon, D.D.S., 
Thomas Dolan, 

J. Wesley Durham, 
Major John A. Duval, 
George H. Earle, Jr., 
Alfred S. Eisenhower, 
John P. Elkin. 
William T. Elliotts, 
RuDULPH Ellis, 
James Elverson, 
James Elverson, Jr., 
Theo. N. Ely, 
William C. Felton, 

D. Newlin Fell, 
William C. Ferguson, 
Benjamin K. Focht, 
W. W. Foulkrod, 
Henry K. Fox, 

John W. Frazer, 

Howard B. French, 

Allan J. Fuller, 

Louis M. Garson, 

James H. Ga\', 

Major J. Campbell Gilmore, 

Major E. Claude Goddard, 

Col. J. L. Good, 

John C. Grady, 

William H. Graham, 

C. A. Green, 

John Gribbel, 

Paul Hagemans, 

Werner Hagen, 

Casper W. Haines, 

Major Harry .\lvan Hall, U.S.V., 

W. Hamer, 

William Harper, 

William F. Harrity, 

Her.man Hassenbruch, 



lO 



Col. Samuel Hastings, New York; 

James H. Hazlett, 

John J. Henderson, 

W. Barklie Henry, 

Charles H. Heustis, 

William P. Henszey, 

A. G. Hetherington, 

D. Hexamer. 

Captain Ambrose Higgins, U.S.N., 

George H. Hill, 

Captain Henry A. F. Hoyt, U.S.V., 

George F. Huff, 

Thomas J. Hunt, 

Dr. Wyllys K. Ingersoll, 

C. E. Irvin, 

Rev. George W. Izer, 

James S. Jefferson, 

J. Jeffries, 

Alba B. Johnson, 

John G. Johnson, 

J. Levering Jones, 

Arnold Katz, 

Sidney W. Keith, 

N. B. Kelly, 

Albert Kelsey, 

George W. Kendrick, Jr., 

Jerome Kidder, 

George W. Kinn, 

John L. Kinsey, 

John J. Kirk, 

Joseph Klemmer, 

Isidore Konti, 

Lieut.-Col. August P. Kunzic, 

Daniel F. Lafean, 

Prof. W. P. Laird, 

Alfred C. Lambdin, M.D., 

F. D. LaLanne, 

William H. Lambert, 

J. Tatnall Lee.- 



John T. Lenahan, 

John B. Lober, 

John M. Lukens. 

Rinaldo a. Lukens, 

James MacAlister, LL.D., 

Ensign Hugh MacPherson, U.S.N., 

George McCurdy, 

J. Franklin McFadden, 

John H. McFadden, 

John G. McHenry, 

John I. McKenna, 

James F. McLaughlin, 

William L. McLean, 

Charles B. McMichael, 

Captain Charles M. !NL\cbold, 

U.S.V., 
Rt. Rev. Alex. !SL\ckay-Smith, D.D., 
Edward W. Magill, 
P. C. Madeira, 
Captain Thomas S. Martin, 
John Mason, 
S. Edwin Megargee, 
Leslie W. Miller. 
Rev. J. R. Miller. D.D., 
L Hazleton Mirkil, 
George L. Mitchell, 
Howard E. Mitchell, 
James E. Mitchell, 
James T. Mitchell, 
Charles E. Morgan, 
George P. Morgan, 
Effingham B. Morris, 
John T. Morris. 
Major Frank L. ^Mueller, 
Lieutenant John S. Muckle, 

U.S.N.. 
Reuben O. Moon, 
Dr. Robert C. Moon, 
Alfred Moore, 



II 



J. H. Moore, 
Joseph Moore, 
GusTAV Navarrette, 
H. L. Neall, 
Horace C. Newcomb, 

T. D. NiCHOLLS, 

W. R. Nicholson, 
Gustav Niederlein, 
Major Henry Nrss, Jr., 
Rev. J. F. Ohl, 
Marlin E. Olmsted, 
Dr. Ellas Martinez Orajius, 
Spencer O. M. Ovington, 
Haig Herant Pakradeoni, 
C. Stuart Patterson, 
James W. Paul, Jr., 
Admir.\l Pendleton, 
L. M. Pearson, 
Harold Peirce, 

E. Eldridce Pen nock, 
George Wharton Pepper, 
John W. Pepper, 
William Perrine, 

O. LaF. Perry, 
Rev. J. B. Gouch Pidge, 
James Pollock, 
William D. Porter, 
William Potter, 
William P. Potter. 
Wilfred Powell, 
En Kirk Price, 
g. c. purves, 
John R. Read, 
John N. Reber, 
.^lan H. Reed, 

F. B. Reeves. 
John E. Revburx, 
John M. Reynolds, 
E. Clinton Rhoads, 



Rev. W. C. Richardson, S.T.D., 

D. Stuart Robinson, 
Joseph M. Rogers, 
Albert R. Ross, 
John H. Rothermel, 
Levi L. Rue, 

Rt. Rev. P. J. Ryan, D.D., 
Manuel Terres Y. Sagaseta, 
Antonio Sans, 
Wilfred H. Schoff, 
George J. Schwentz, 
Theodore C. Search, 
Edgar V. Seeler, 
Dr. John L. Shoemaker, 
A. Louden Snowden, 
William C. Sproul, 
William H. Staake, 
George E. Ste.\rns, 
Joseph A. Stein metz, 
Adam A. Stull, 
John S. Stevens, 
John Stewart, 

E. T. Stotesburv, 
Mayer Sulzberger, 
L J. T.\ylor, 
Roland L. Taylor. 
Pol. Le Tellier. 
Theodore de Thodorovich, 
Dr. N. Wiley Thomas, 

Rev. Floyd W. Tomkins, S.T.D., 

Samuel Gustine Thompson, 

Rev. William Tracy, 

William R. Tucker, 

Colonel Hamilton D. Turner. 

Captain W. Preston Tyler, 

Gen. Louis Wagner, 

Dr. J. B. Walker, 

Rev. J. G. Walker, D.D., 

J. N. Wallem, 



John M. Walton^ Lieut.-Col. Albert L. Williams, 

John Wanamaker, William B. Wilson, 

Rodman Wanamaker, William P. AVilson, 

Irving P. Wanger, Robert N. Wilson, 

E. B. Warren, Robert J. Wissmore, 

George S. Webster, Jones Wister, 

Albert E. Weimer, Rev. Edward S. Wolle, 

Andrew Wheeler, William Wood, 

N. C. Wheeler, Major Charles H. Worman, 

P. A. B. Widener, a. Viti, 

Col. Theo. E. Wiedersheim, Jesse T. Vogdes, 

lI.MiRY I. YoHN, 

Immediately after luncheon, the Committee and guests 
marched to the temporary platform erected east of the 
monument where the opening exercises were held. 

In the plaza on the south front of the City Hall were 
stationed the military organizations and many thousands 
of spectators, the latter extending south on Broad Street 
to the Academy of Music. 

The military parade was in charge of General Wendell 
P. Bowman, N. G. P., and was composed of the following 
organizations : 

The City Troop, in full-dress uniform, in command of 
Captain Groome. 

Detachment of six hundred marines and blue-jackets 
from the Navy Yard under command of Lieutenant-Com- 
mander Kittell and Lieutenant-Commander Logan. 

Delegations from all the G. A. R. Posts in this city 
and vicinity. More than six hundred of the old veterans 
had announced that they would parade in honor of their 
dead comrade, under the command of Joseph R. Craig, as 
marshal. 




John H. Converse, Esq., 
Chairman of the Citizens' Committee. 



15 

The Spanish War veterans also paraded, but not by 
special organizations. 

The National Guard was represented by a provisional 
regiment of a battalion from each of the four city regi- 
ments under command of Colonel James B. Coryell, of the 
Sixth Regiment, who was chief of staff to General Bow- 
man. 

The military preparations were in charge of Joseph 
A. Steinmetz on behalf of the General Committee. 

The troops were massed on South Penn Square, in the 
order named, with the City Troop in front of the monu- 
ment, the other organizations extending westward. 

The exercises on the plaza were opened by an address 
from President John H. Converse- as follows: 

"Philadelphia Citizens: Seven years ago, in honor 
of the memory of President McKinley, an association was 
formed for the purpose of commemorating his virtues and 
abilities in lasting bronze. It has taken years to complete 
this work; to-day we rejoice that it is completed. The 
unveiling and presentation should be done by one who. 
himself, is a veteran of the Civil AVar, in which our 
lamented President McKinley also participated, and I pre- 
sent General Wagner, who will supervise the unveiling of 
the statue and presentation of it to the City of Philadelphia 
— General Wagner." 

General Wagner replied in part: 

"Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Com- 
rades: By direction of the Chairman of the McKinley 



i6 

Memorial Association, Mr. Converse, I take charge of the 
ceremonies at this point and at this place. It would be a 
presumption and an impertinence on my part, in view of 
the exercises, which will commence at the Academy of 
Music, when we are dismissed at this place, to more than 
refer to the memory of the man, which brings us together, 
at this time and in this place. As the Chairman has sug- 
gested, seven years ago nearly, we were startled by the 
news that President McKinley had been shot and passed 
from this to a better world, but he has left with us and for 
us and our children and children's children a memory that 
will make those that follow us better citizens than they 
would otherwise be. 

"In connection with this ceremon}- of unveiling there 
have been selected, — (i) member of the United States 
Volunteer Navy, Lievitenant William G. McEwan, who 
lost his right arm in the battle of Mobile Bay, while fight- 
ing under Admiral Farragut; and (2) another represent- 
ing the soldiers of the war, Sergeant William R. Ramsey, 
of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment, Pennsylvania 
Volunteers, who, in the battle of the Wilderness, lost his 
left leg. These comrades will have immediate charge of 
the unveiling of the memorial to President McKinley, and 
when this is ended we will go to the Academy of Music, 
where one of the orators of the day, will tell us all about 
this — Hon. James M. Beck." 

The two veterans, at a word from General Wagner, 
tugged at the ropes, and the flags, covering the statue, 




Hon. John E. Reyburn, 
Mayor of Philadelphia. 



i9 

swung back, revealing the monument. The band struck 
up "The Star Spangled Banner." 

General Wagner then asked Alayor Reyburn to accept 
the gift of the jMcKinley Memorial Association, as follows : 

"Mayor Reyburn, in the name of and representing 
The IMcKinley Memorial Association I am instructed to 
present to you, as head of the City of Philadelphia, this 
memorial, in honor of William McKinley, and we ask that 
you, as the representative of the City of Philadelphia, will 
accept it in her behalf." 

The ]\Iayor replied as follows: 

"General Wagner and Citizens of Philadelphia: 
I receive this monument with a true regard of its import- 
ance not only to the City of Philadelphia, but to the whole 
United States. Two men in our country, Abraham Lin- 
coln and William McKinley, are representative of the true 
Americans who have studied the institutions of this country 
and have had experience in the administration of the law; 
and who represent, if ever two men did so, our form of 
government in the best and highest sense. Therefore, as 
a citizen of Philadelphia and as its Chief Magistrate, I 
receive this monument, and pledge that the City of Phil- 
adelphia and its citizens will always regard it with venera- 
tion and respect, and care for and guard it to the fullest 
extent." 

At the conclusion of these ceremonies the Committee 
and its gnests marched to the Academy of Music at Broad 
and Locust Streets, escorted by the military. 



At the Academy of Music the Committee and distin- 
guished guests occupied seats either on the stage or in the 
boxes, the members of the G. A. R. the entire parquet, and 
the other mihtary and naval organizations and general 
public filled the main body of seats. Mr. Converse presided 
during the following program: 

Military Music — "American Overture" . . .Catlin 

Invocation By tlie Rev. S. M. Vernon, D.D. 

Chorus — "Absence" I. L. Hafton 

Address By the Hon. Jaiiics M. Beck* 

Hymn — "Lead, Kindly Light" 

Military Music — "Star-Spangled Banner" 

A semi-chorus from the Orpheus Club sang the vocal 
numbers and the military music was furnished by the 
Municipal Band. 

At the close of this program "Taps" were sounded by 
the bugles and the audience was dismissed. 



* Mr. Beck's address is printed in full in the following pages. 




Hox. James M. Beck, 
Orator at the Dedication Exercises. 



THE MEMORY OF McKINLEY. 



An Oration, Delivered at the Academy of Music 
IN THE City of Philadelphia, at the Dedica- 
tion OF the McKinley Memorial on June 6, 1908, 
BY James M. Beck, formerly Assistant Attorney 
General of the United States. 



My Fellow Citizens : 

We have met to-day to dedicate a noble monument 
to the noble memory of a very noble man. Were this work 
of our hands composed of perishable stuff, which the rains 
of a few summers would speedily dissolve, we would need 
no other justification than to say, as Ben Johnson did of 
Shakespeare : 

"I loved the man and do honor his memory." 

We have, however, wrought in imperishable granite 
and bronze, and therefore for the after-ages. To them we 
must appeal for justification of this day's work. The sculp- 
tor of this statue, whose untimely death gives added pathos 
to the occasion, has happily expressed the true purpose of 
memorial art in the figures upon the pedestal, which repre- 
sent the muse of history teaching the children of the future. 
If a statue be not commemorative in character, it needs no 

(=3) 



24 

other justification than its own intrinsic beauty, for "a 
thing of beauty is a joy forever." But even beauty must 
not be perverted in the attempt to make that permanent 
which is transitory or to dignify the trivial with lasting 
honor. The Greeks had so fine a sense of the ethics of 
memorial art that they condemned Phidias to prison for 
sacrilege, Ijecause he had fiirtively chiseled images of him- 
self and Pericles upon the shield of Minerva. 

If we have builded wisely, then this statue and the 
fame of the great statesman, whom it commemorates, alike 
justly challenge oblivion. It seeks to project the beliefs and 
emotions of this generation beyond the gulf of years into 
that unknown and illimitable future, down whose infinite 
vista we strain an eager l)ut darkened vision. It proudly 
asserts our belief to the coming ages that while we, who 
have this day erected it, will soon "fade like streaks of 
morning cloud into the infinite azure of the past," yet the 
memory of William McKinley will not be as fleeting as a 
cloudy vapor, but will shine as a fixed star, by whose be- 
nignant rays unborn generations of men will be guided. 

Such appeal of the living to the unborn is either an 
act of sublime justice or presumptuous folly. If the latter, 
its worse vice is that it flatters and therefore shames the 
dead. 

As the collective power of civilization waxes the indi- 
vidual wanes, and it becomes increasingly hazardous to 
place any man among the Immortals, before whom the 
generations of men ceaselessly file with their unending 
salutation: "Morituri, salutamus!" \\'alking once in the 



25 

vaulted aisles of Westminster Abbey, I turned into a side 
chapel, where a score of kings and queens lay in the all- 
levelling promiscuity of death. The verger told me of 
Dean Stanley's long search to find even the grave of one of 
these monarchs who had been crowned in the twlight light 
of the old Abbey with so much pomp and circumstance. 
Well may its eternal shadows remind us of Edmund 
Burke's sad exclamation to the electors of Bristol : 

"What shadows we are and what shadows we pursue." 

And yet there are men of such heroic mould as to be 
comparatively untouched by that stream of time, which 
washes away the more dissoluble substance of other repu- 
tations. 

If nobility of character alone sufficed to justify this 
labor of love, we need have no misgivings. Integrity of 
purpose, purity of mind, unselfishness in spirit, compassion- 
ate sympathy, heroic fortitude, and knightly chivalry were 
so finely blended in \A'illiam McKinley that one could say 
of him, as Antony of Brutus: 

"His life was gentle, and the elements 

So mixed in him that Nature might stand up 

And say to all the world, 'This was a man.' " 

Immortality, however, demands dififerent — I will not 
say higher — credentials. The permanent influence of any 
great man or institution must depend upon some vital 
message or service to humanity of contintiing, exceptional 
and beneficent potency. A great man pre-supposes a great 
work, a great work a great force, and a great force a great 



26 

idea. In the true Immortal — \\hen seen by sympathetic 
imagination — can always be found some great mission, 
closely interwoven with the "increasing purpose" of the 
ages, of which even lie may have been in part unconscious. 
The master-builders of States always build better than they 
know, and the reason for this to the eye of faith is that they 
are simply artisans, who place stone upon stone as com- 
manded by the great Architect. 

To Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and McKinley 
came mandates of pregnant consequence. To each the 
message came without his knowledge, purpose or volition. 

To Washington came the mission of national inde- 
pendence. He had denounced in 1774 as "malevolent false- 
hoods" the assertion "that there is any intention in the 
American colonies to set up for independent States." Two 
years later he wrote: "When I took command of the army 
I abhorred the idea of independence; now I am convinced 
nothing else will save us." 

To Jefferson came the great mandate of continental 
expansion. He sought to buy the port of New Orleans, 
and he unwittingly purchased the half of a continent. 

To Lincoln came the divine mandate for the eman- 
cipation of the slave- He, too, in his first inaugural, had 
solemnly said to his brethren of the South : 

"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with 
the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe 
I have no lawful right to do so and I have no inclination to 
do so." 

Less than two years later he emancipated the slaves. 



27 

To McKinley also, in the fullness of time, came a 
mandate which, in pregnant consequence, can be but little 
undervalued to those momentous events which preceded 
it, and which with it seem to form continuous links in the 
chain of the divine plan. 

Without any conscious purpose or volition either on 
his part or that of the American people, the great Republic 
abandoned its outworn policy of continental isolation and 
assumed its place in the councils of civilization as a world 
power of commanding importance and corresponding 
responsibility. 

Great historic events must be seen in their due per- 
spective of time and result. As the man who stands upon 
the steps of the Cologne Cathedral cannot grasp the ma- 
jestic beauty of its towering Gothic spires, so to us of 
McKinley's generation is denied that larger vision of what 
he accomplished which our children and children's children 
will one day have. When Caesar's legions left the Eternal 
City and disappeared in the forests of Gaul, probably 
neither the Senate nor the people felt more than a languid 
interest. Yet the advance of Caesar's legions was the ad- 
vance of civilization, and when four centuries later the 
Germanic tribes invaded Italy, it was but to spread that 
civilization to Ultima Thule. As Mommsen, the great 
historian of the Roman Empire, says : 

"Centuries elapsed before men understood that Alexander 
had not merely erected an ephemeral kingdom in the East, 
but had carried Hellenism to Asia ; centuries again elapsed 
before men understood that Cassar had not merely conquered 



a new province for the Romans, but had laid the foundation for 
the Romanizing of the West.'' 

Centuries will probably elapse before the world fully 
realizes that, when the flag of this country was planted 
at the very gateway of China, that the star of civiliza" 
tion, which had moved westward for so many centuries, 
had at last completed the circuit of the globe, and stood 
again over the ^•ery cradle of humanity. The thunder 
of Dewey's cannon in Manila Bay will have many rever- 
berating echoes in the long centuries to come. 

On the night of the explosion of the Maine, and quite 
ignorant of that fateful occurrence, I spoke in the City 
of New York. Discussing the constitutional powers of 
the Executive, I said : 

"The President of the United States with a stroke of his 
pen could shake the equilibrium of the world." 

Before the summer was past, time had verified my 
statement. One world empire had ended, another had 
begun. 

Let it ne\er be forgotten that this war was begun 
with no selfish purpose on our part nor with any stain 
upon our flag. The Republic sprang to arms, not because 
it loved peace less, but because it loved justice more. No 
lust of military glory or territorial aggrandizement actu- 
ated our intervention in Cuba. For many years the con- 
science of the American people had been afifronted by the 
misrule of that "isle of sorro\vs," and, as it lay at our very 
gates, its misfortunes were also ours. Yet the American 



29 

people, until patience ceased to be a virtue, sympathized 
with the efforts of Grant, Cleveland, Harrison and 
McKinley to preserve inviolate our traditional policy of 
non-intervention in the domestic afifairs of another nation, 
even though both our interests and sympathies were vitally 
afifected. The barbarities of \\'eyler, the insulting refer- 
ence to President McKinley b}' the Spanish Minister, and 
the explosion of the Maine in the harbor of Havana when 
on a mission of peace, only precipitated the inevitable. 
Even then the pacific McKinley hoped for a peaceful ter- 
mination of an intolerable condition through the good 
offices of this Government. When he gave his final in- 
structions to General Stewart L. Woodford, whom he had 
appointed Minister to Spain, his parting words were : 

"I know that Spanish rule in Cuba must cease. But I want 
you to secure the ultimate withdrawal of Spanish authority 
from Cuba by peaceful mean^. This ought to be possible. I 
want you to do all in your powei to secure this result. War is 
so dreadful an alternative that we must keep peace, if peace be 
possible. I rely ujx)n you to accomplish this result, and I 
shall do all I can to help you." 

He could not, however, do the impossible. The blood 
of the slain in Cuba cried out as from the very ground, and 
our pacific purpose finally gave place to the passionate 
indignation of freemen. \Vc took a high resolve in the 
spirit of our fathers to stop this barbarity forever. Though 
dead, John Brown yet spoke, and to the relief of the un- 
happy people of Cuba his soul marched on at the head of 
our battalions. 



3° 

Within a hundred days the war was over, and Manila, 
El Caney and Santiago were added to the historic triumphs 
of American arms. 

Dewey's victory — not unworthy of a land which gave 
Paul Jones, Bainbridge, Decatur, Porter and Farragut to 
history — confronted the American people with a respon- 
sibility more momentous and pregnant with future conse- 
quences than e\-er weighed upon our Nation since its 
beginning, with the exception of the period of the Civil 
War. To this crisis the words which Jefferson wrote to 
Monroe at the time of the promulgation of the Monroe 
Doctrine seem applicable. 

"The question is the most momentous since that of in- 
dependence ; that made us a nation, this sets our compass and 
[)oints the course which we are to steer through the Ocean 
of Time opening- on us." 

To return these islands of the sea to Spain was to dis- 
avow the justice of the war; to abandon them to other 
powers was unthinkable and might simply have invited 
further bloodshed. And yet to annex them to our country 
as permanent possessions was to cross a Rubicon which 
might well give us pause. 

After patient deliberation, this alternative seemed in- 
evitable: Either we must govern them as colonial depen- 
dencies or permit them to make the experiment of full 
self-government, ^^'e tried the former alternative in the 
Philippines and the latter in Cuba. It was the latter which 
failed. The result of the Cuban experiment should now 



31 

convince anyone that our course in the Philippines was 
dictated by the sincerest regard for their good. No one 
can say with truth that the Phihppine people, composed of 
many tribes, speaking many different languages and vary- 
ing in degrees of civilization from the wildest savage to 
civilized men, was better capable of self-government than 
Cuba, whose people was reasonably homogeneous and who 
exceeded in average capacity the Philippine people. When, 
therefore, after reforming Cuba, we allowed their people 
themselves to govern it under a constitution which they 
had formed, and by ofificials which they elected, there was 
a speedy and most convincing demonstration that a people 
who for centuries had not been accustomed to self-govern- 
ment could not in a moment, without previous education 
or training, establish a stable government. 

The justification of our insular policy lies in the fact 
that we brought to the peoples of these islands freedom 
from misrule, invested them with the fundamental personal 
rights of American citizens, created for them a stable and 
efficient government, gave them the fullest measure of 
self-rule of which they were capable, and immeasurably 
benefited them by wise administrative relief. In Cuba, as 
in the Philippines, we fed the starving, clothed the naked, 
subdued the lawless, cleaned the streets, extirpated disease, 
opened hospitals and schools, made the courts of justice 
free and impartial, expanded commerce, and, if it be 
objected that freedom with poverty, disease and crime is 
better than these lilessings, we reply that, not only has 
every Filipino been given every fundamental personal right 



3-^ 

of an American citizen, but that his country now enjoys 
a larger measure of self-government than many of the 
territories of the United States in its past history- 

But in the insular problem lay the germ of a moment- 
ous policy with wliich ^NIcKinley's name will forever be 
honorably identified. Upon him devolved the grave re- 
sponsibility of determining whether the \\'estern Hemi- 
sphere was large enough for the influence and progress of 
the American people, or whether we should abandon com- 
mercially and politically our policy of western isolation and 
claim an influence which should be as limitless as the world 
is round. The Atlantic Coast was our cradle, lusty youth 
found us on the banks of the Mississippi, vigorous maturity 
had brought us to the Pacific. Were we, like Alexander, 
to stop at the margin of the Pacific and mourn that it for- 
ever barred our further progress, or were we, like the in- 
spired pilot of Genoa, to launch the bark of our national 
destiny into an unknown sea? 

There is a natural conservatism in our race, and a 
distrust and dread of innovation. It has ever been slow 
to leave the beaten paths of the fathers. Nor need this be 
deprecated, for it ensures a reasonable continuity of policy. 
Yet the great actors of the revolutionary epic had their 
traditions, and \vere also forced by the inexorable logic of 
events to disregard all. 

The same was true of those fateful years that ended 
the Nineteenth Century. Once again the Nation felt a 
mysterious and puissant impulse. The Monroe Doctrine 
circumscribed our political influence within the Western 



33 

Hemisphere. Under William McKinley, this policy of 
isolation was forever abandoned. 

Least of any nation, should America question the 
"increasing purpose" of the ages, and William IMcKinley, 
in facing those "new occasions'" which taught "new duties," 
simply appreciated that steam and electricity had destroyed 
our "distant and detached position," of which Washington 
spoke in the immortal farewell address, and upon which he 
wisely predicated in and for the infancy of the Republic 
a policy of isolation. We had grown to be a nation of 
seventy-five millions of people, inhabiting a continent from 
ocean to ocean, midway between the Orient and the Occi- 
dent, and with a manifest destiny, to which all the past in 
our history was but a glorious prologue. W^ith his pro- 
found sympathy, President McKinlev knew that he could 
as hopefully have bidden the Mississippi cease its flow 
toward the sea, or the Hudson to remain chained within its 
sylvan sources, as to prevent the onward movement of this 
great, proud, generous and progressive people. This was 
true of the day of our weakness, and it was doubly true of 
the day of our strength. 

While we cannot raise the veil of the future, yet we 
can proudly claim that the immediate results of McKinley's 
policy of expansion have been for the good of the Republic 
and the greater good of civilization. With greater truth 
than the third Napoleon we can say: "The Republic is 
peace." Never was its power greater, its influence more 
peaceful, or its honor more unsullied. It has become the 
great arbitrator of nations. Its diplomacy has been that 



34 

of transparent candor, and to it, in the last decade, the 
world has looked for a just solution of many intricate prob- 
lems. When Pekin was in a state of revolution, while the 
soldiers of the Republic marched shoulder to shoulder with 
the soldiers of England, Germany, Russia and Japan, to 
the relief of the beleaguered legations, it was America 
which took the tolerant position that technically no state 
of war existed with China, and thus to some extent spared 
the ancient Empire both the humiliation and the burden 
of being a conquered nation. The war was treated only 
as the suppression of an internal rebellion. When China 
was threatened with dismemberment, it was to President 
McKinley that it turned for protection and through him 
its integrity was largely preserved. It was our country 
which softened the terms of peace, returned the unused 
portion of its indemnity and secured the policy of the "open 
door." \\'hen the Russo-Japanese War again threatened 
to involve the integrity of Chinese territory, it Avas to 
President Roosevelt that Kaiser Wilhelm turned to enlist 
his good offices to secure a restriction of the field of opera- 
tions. It was again our country which brought Japan and 
Russia, after a bloody war, into friendly conference and 
secured the Treaty of Portsmouth. The Hague Confer- 
ence may owe its initiative to the Czar, but it owes its 
continuance and beneficent results in large part to the 
American policy as formulated by McKinle}- and carried 
forward by Theodore Roosevelt. 

I have dwelt at some length upon this policy of ex- 
pansion, as for it William McKinley will be longest and 



35 

most gratefully remembered. This was the great idea 
which gives lasting significance to his career, and ranks 
him with Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. 

Behind Washington was the idea of independent 
America ; behind Jefferson, that of continental America ; 
behind Lincoln, that of united America; behind McKinley, 
that of cosmopolitan America. 

What were McKinley's qualifications for the great 
work he undertook and accomplished? 

His intellectual abilities were not extraordinary. In 
these he was little more than the average man ; but — did 
we but know it — the world owes more to the average man 
than to those of exceptional genius. During his useful 
career as a legislator he was chiefly and almost exclusively 
known for his advocacy of a high tariff', in which school of 
economic thought he had gained his inspiration from that 
great Philadelphia representative and conspicuous advocate 
of Protection, \\'illiam D. Kelley, and yet McKinley gave 
us by his patient study an administrative fiscal bill, which 
is still on the statute books and whose constructive wisdom 
no party or statesman has since questioned. 

He had a keen appreciation of the great responsibility 
of a leader of thought for what he says and does. What 
he knew he knew well; but he never sought to "box the 
compass" of human knowledge. He never pretended to 
have a remedy for every ill. an answer to every question, 
and "words, words, words" for everv occasion. 



36 

It could not be said of him, as Sydney Smith said of 
Lord John Russell, that 

"there is nothing he would not undertake. I believe he would 
perform an operation for stone, build St. Peter's, assume (with 
or without ten minutes' notice) the command of the Channel 
Fleet, and no one would discover from his manner that the 
patient had died, that St. Peter's had tumbled down, and that 
the Channel Fleet had been knocked to atoms." 

McKinley did not seek to change in a day conditions which 
required decades for their due and orderly adjustment. 
He was not unmindful of the serious evils, to which our 
rapid expansion had given rise. He gave them serious 
thought and conservative action. As Mr. Cortelyou has 
recently said : 

"But to deal with them effectively without shattering the 
interwoven and delicate fabric of the forces that were co- 
operating for the welfare of the country — that was the ques- 
tion." 

He was a conservative, not a radical; an evolutionist, 
not a revolutionist; a creator, not a destroyer. A great 
leader of a party, he became by a "gentle persistency," 
worthy of Lincoln, a greater leader of the whole people, 
but his complete mastery of men and events never lessened 
the self-effacing modesty of his nature. 

He had neither the austere mastery of men of Wash- 
ington, the constructive genius of Hamilton, the philo- 
sophic breadth of Jefferson, the brilliant magnetism of 
Clay, nor the profound reasoning of Webster. His nearest 




Z 

t3 



,""■ u ^ 



> 

z 

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38 

analogue is Lincoln. Like Lincoln, he had the genius of 
common sense, that instinctive sense of and regard for the 
just relation of things to each other; like Lincoln, he had 
profound sympathy with the inmost thoughts, the deepest 
feelings, the loftiest aspirations of the American people; 
like Lincoln, he had the gift of grasping the fundamental 
principles underlying a controversy and interpreting them 
to the masses in convincing phrases. Above all, like Lin- 
coln, he had that greatest of all dynamic powers, a great, 
loving, sympathetic heart. Of each it could be written in 
the inspired words of the great Apostle: 

"Love suffereth long and is kind ; love envieth not ; love 
vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up. 

Doth not behave unseemly ; seeketh not her own ; is not 
easily provoked ; thinketh no evil. 

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
endureth all things." 

Such was Abraham Lincoln! Such was William 
McKinley ! 

His very sympathy subjected him to the unjust charge 
that he was a vacillating opportunist. Such critics mistook 
cautious deliberation, tactful sympathy, courteous tolera- 
tion of the views of others, practical recognition of the 
inevitable limitations of political power, with a timorous 
spirit. He was not an egotist and recognized the necessity 
and therefore the duty of concession to the views of others 
in a democratic commonwealth. 

Indeed, his whole career showed that under his gentle 
demeanor and considerate courtesy and unfailing tolerance. 



39 

there lay an iron will which was as a stone wall covered 
with flowers. 

On the eve of the Spanish-American War, a com- 
mittee of the Board of Trade of an Ohio city came to the 
White House to urge him, as citizens of his own State, to 
declare war. It happened that Captain Sigsbee, of the 
Maine, was in the Executive Room when the committee 
was ushered in, and, after the delegation had stated its pur- 
pose, the President excused himself for a moment, turned 
to Captain Sigsbee and, clasping his hand, said in a voice 
sufficiently loud for the bellicose Ohio delegation to hear 
him: 

"Captain Sigsbee, you never did a finer thing for the honor 
of your country than when, after the explosion of the Maine, 
you requested your fellow-countrymen to suspend judgment." 

The delegation took the gentle hint and departed wiser 
if sobered men. 

His faithful private secretary, than whom none in public 
life possibly understood him better, has recently given an in- 
stance of his firmness and deliberation when essentials were 
at stake. When not only his own party in Congress, but a 
great majority of the American people were clamoring for 
an immediate declaration of war with Spain, the President, 
at the risk of his own popularity, stood like a stone wall 
against that course- When, however, further opposition 
was fruitless he prepared a message to be sent to Congress 
recommending intervention in the affairs of Cuba. He 
believed that when the message was made public ihc life 



40 

of every American on the island would be imperiled. To 
quote Mr. Cortelyou: 

"The President was sitting with his Cabinet, and when 
prominent Senators and Representatives and some of those 
present were urging him to send in his message at once, they 
declared that any further delay might mean political destruction 
for his administration and party. Mr. McKinley sent for me 
to bring the message to him. I laid it on the table before him. 
Just then there came an army cablegram from Fitzhugh Lee 
(our consul at Havana), saying that it would be dangerous 
to act until he sent further word. But at that moment a 
number of those in the room again pressed the President to 
send his message before Congress immediately. Mr. McKinley 
could hardly have been under greater pressure. He caught 
the string to the bell, but suddenly he caught his hand, raised 
it and brought his iist down on the table with a bang, as he said, 
in a clear voice, 'That message is not going to Congress so 
long as there is a single remaining life in danger in Cuba. 
Here,' turning to me, 'put that in the safe until I call for it.' " 

His unfailing courtesy to those who not only differed 
with him, but bitterly assailed his policy, may be illustrated 
by two incidents. 

His insular policy had no more sincere or unsparing 
critic than the late Senator Hoar. In the latter's memoirs 
we learn that the President, after these bitter attacks, in- 
vited the Massachusetts Senator to the White House. The 
Senator thus describes the interview: 

"He greeted me with the delightful and affectionate cor- 
diality which I always found in him. He took me by the hand 
and said: 'How are you feeling this winter, Mr. Senator?' I 



41 

was determined there should be no misunderstanding. I replied 
at once : 'Pretty pugnacious, I confess, Mr. President.' The 
tears came into his eyes and he said, grasping my hand again: 
T shall always love you, whatever you do.' " 

The other incident was told nie by a member of his 
Cabinet and an eye-witness. On one occasion one of his 
Cabinet asked the President to remove summarily a sub- 
ordinate because of a public statement which reflected 
upon his departmental superior. The reflection was more 
thoughtless than intentional. McKinley took the printed 
statement and carefully examined it, and, knowing cir- 
cumstances of palliation, of which the Secretary was ig- 
norant, turned to the Secretary and said, "If this is a 
reflection on you, Air. Secretary, it is equally one on me 
as President of the United States," and the Secretary 
promptly said, "It is an insult to you and that is a double 
reason why he should be instantly removed. If you so 
regard it. will you not remove him, Mr. President?" And 
the President, quietly putting the paper in his pocket, said, 
"Well, if upon further consideration I regard this as a 
reflection upon me, I think I shall forgive him." 

\\'ho can forget his courteous expression of regret 
after he was shot, that this tragic event should mar the 
festal occasion at which it happened? His tenderness for 
his invalid wife was but the perfect flower of his knightly 
courtesy to all. Even to his base assassin he had extended 
the right hand of fellowship. 

Time will not suffice to dwell upon his many amiable 
and noble characteristics, and yet in this presence, where 



42 

are gathered his brave comrades of the "Grand Army of 
the RepubHc," I must not fail to dwell, though but briefly, 
upon his patriotism, which with him was ever a passionate 
emotion. 

In all his public life, unless we except its beautiful and 
pathetic end, nothing is nobler and truer than its beginning, 
when as a boy of eighteen he heard the call of his country 
and as a private followed its beckoning flag to the front. 
Like every act of his life, it was not an impulse born of 
passing enthusiasm or love of adventure, but a deliberately 
conceived act of patriotic duty- Only a few years before 
impaired health had compelled him to leave college in his 
junior year and he was then earning a scanty livelihood 
as a public school teacher. He could well plead his ex- 
treme youth, his dependent family, his impaired health. 

Visiting the City of Columbus, he saw a regiment 
departing for the front. An unimpassioned boy, thought- 
ful rather than emotional, neither the spirit-stirring drum, 
the ear-piercing fife, or other pride, pomp or circumstance 
of war had any call for him. But the flag had a message 
for him, an imperious call to duty, and on his return home 
he told his mother that he must go, and that mother, with 
the Spartan fortitude of so many American mothers at 
that fateful and ever-glorious period, simply said: 

"If you think it is your duty to fight for your country, I 
think you should go." 

Thus he joined that noble army of young men, who 
in the dark days of 1861 left their farms, their shops, their 



43 

counting houses, their homes, their famihes, to offer their 
Hves, if need were, to save the Repubhc. When General 
Grant was the guest of honor at a great dinner in Germany, 
he was hailed as the "Savior of his country," to which 
the great commander modestly replied: "It was the yoitng 
men. and not I, who saved the Republic." Again, when 
with failing pen he finished his memoirs, he simplv dedi- 
cated the recital of glorious achievements "To the Ameri- 
can Soldier and Sailor." 

The tribute was deserved. Only He, who "counteth 
all our sorrows," will ever appreciate the deathless glory 
and infinite sacrifices of the volunteers of 1861. From Bull 
Run to Appomattox they struggled bravely on. To many, 
the Wilderness was a great Gethsemane, in which they 
felt "sweat as of great drops of blood ;" to others, the shell- 
stormed streets of Gettysburg were a via dolorosa, which 
they trod to a martyr's death ; to others, the heights of 
Fredericksburg were a Calvary, in which tliey repeated the 
infinite tragedy of the Cross. 

Had young McKinley fallen as so many others, what 
appreciation would he have had? A sorrowing mother to 
ceaselessly lament him while life remained, a few comrades 
to decorate with each recurring spring his grave, but 
otherwise he would simply have joined that ghostly arm)-, 
of which the Abee Perreyve writes : 

"Unseen bj' the corporal eyes, but too clearly visible to the 
mind's eye, the great army of the dead, the army of the slain, 
the abandoned, the forgotten ; the army of cruel torture and 
prolonged infirmities, which pursues its fatal march behind what 
we call glory." 



44 

Of McKinley's fidelity as a soldier, let his command- 
ing officer, General Hayes, speak : 

"The night was never too dark, the weather was never 
too cold, there was no sleet or storm, or hail or snow, that was 
in the way of his prompt and efficient p>erformance of every 
duty." 

At Antietam, Kernstown, Opequan, Fisher's Creek, 
Winchester and Cedar Hill, he distinguished himself by 
conspicuous acts of bravery, and received therefor the 
reward he most cherished — a commission "for gallantry 
and meritorious services," with the simple signature of 
"Abraham Lincoln." 

His training as a soldier prepared him for that tragic 
end, than which nothing more beautiful or pathetic has 
happened in our history. 

He had entered his second administration with the 
liveliest expectations of beneficent results which would sur- 
pass all that he had accomplished. At home prosperity, 
peace and mutual sympathy were everywhere abundant. 
His visits South after the Spanish-American War had for- 
ever healed the wounds of our great civil conflict. Never 
was there less feeling among the classes and sections, never 
less murnuirs of discontent. Perhaps the crown of his 
achievements was that "era of good feeling." 

Mr. Cortelyou has recently told us that at this time 
he often heard McKinley say with deep emotion, "I can 
no longer be called the President of a party ; I am the Presi- 
dent of the whole people." 



45 

In this spirit he went to Buffalo, there to reahze an 
unconscious prediction of his own Hps as to his own end. 
Nine years ago he had stood where I stand now, and, 
speaking within these walls to many now here assembled, 
said of the pathetic end of Grant : 

"And when he had finished that work, he laid down his pen, 
and, like a good soldier, said to his Master, 'Now, let Thy will 
be done, not mine.' " 

"Like a good soldier," McKinley faced death and 
accepted his tragic end. The pathos of that death has 
rarely been equaled. It touched as few others the great 
heart of the world. One can recall the sad verses of 
McKinley's true friend and tried counsellor, John Hay: 

My short and happy day is done. 
The long and lonely night comes on ; 
And at my door the pale horse stands 
To carry me to unknown lands. 

His whinny shrill, his pawing hoof, 
Sound dreadful as a gathering storm, 
And I must leave this sheltering roof 

And joys of life so soft and warm. 

Tender and warm the joys of life. 
Good friends, the faithful and the true ; 
My rosy children and my wife, 
So sweet to kiss, so fair to view. 

So sweet to kiss, so fair to view — 
The night comes on, the light burns blue ; 
And at my door the pale horse stands 
To bear me forth to unknown lands. 



46 

To him was permitted, altliough unconsciously, a fare- 
well to the people whom he had led to high achievement 
and from whom he was to be taken forever. 

Like the farewell address of Washington, his last 
public utterance was a plea not only for a greater America, 
but for "peace on earth, good will among men." 

"God and man, said he, have hnked the nations together. 
No nation can longer be indifferent to any other." 

Then, with hands outstretched as if in benediction in the 
clear sunshine of that September day, he prayed that 

"God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity and peace to all our 
neighbors and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of 
the earth." 

Such was the last public utterance of William ]\Ic- 
Kinley. 

On the following day, with his accustomed gracious- 
ness, the President stepped from the eminence from which 
he had addressed the people and stood on a level with them, 
extending, as their friend and brother, the right hand of 
fellowship to all who sought it. To old or young, rich or 
poor, powerful or weak, native born or foreign born, to 
one and all, that never-to-be-forgotten kindly glance and 
the genial clasp of his right hand. It was in that moment 
of popular triumph and overflowing good-will that a miser- 
able wretch betrayed him with a treachery to which there is 
hardly a parallel in baseness since Judas Iscariot betrayed 
his Master with a kiss. 

From the lips of the man who stood next to him, and 



47 

after the fatal shot, encircled McKinley wiili his arm. I 
have within a few days again heard the tragic tale. After 
the fatal bullet struck him, McKinley stood erect "like a 
soldier," and then, without a change in his coimtenance or 
a tremor in his voice, said to Mr. Milburn : 

"Did that man shoot me." 

"I fear he did, Mr. President," was the sad reply. 

The President then noticed a dozen strong arms which 
had seized the assassin and threatened to tear him limb 
from limb. "Let no one harm him," the President said, 
calmly. No utterance could have been more characteristic. 
It was not maudlin sympathy, but a desire that even this 
base wretch should not be the victim of mob rule. Again 
he thus held inviolate the honor of his country and the 
majesty of law. 

His remarkable poise may be well illustrated by the 
following incident : On the day before he was shot, a well- 
known Buffalo physician joined the long line of those who 
were participating in a reception to the President. As he 
approached the President, he said: "Mr. President, I 
have not come here to-day because I have any favor to ask, 
but because of my sincere admiration for you." On the 
following day the physician in question was suddenly sum- 
moned to the Exposition to attend the wounded President 
and was among the first to reach his bedside. As he ap- 
proached the President, the latter, with his exceptional 
memory for faces and events, said to the physician: "Yes- 
terday you told me that you had no favor to ask of me 
To-dav I am not so fortunate." 



/ 

MAY 1 1S09 



48 

Neither then nor in the few days of Hngering pain 
which followed were any words of bitterness heard from 
his lips. And yet to him, with the simple faith of his 
fathers, there was the "kindly light," which illuminated the 
"encircling gloom." As bravely as he had ridden down 
the lines at Kernstown he faced Death, and when the end 
was near he simply said : 

"Good-bye ; good-bye ! It is God's way. His will be 
done." 

Thus he had spoken of his great commander. Grant : 

"And when he had finished his work he laid down his pen 
and, like a good soldier, said to his Master, 'Now, let Thy will 
be done ; not mine.' " 

My fellow-citizens, no memorial that we can fashion 
with our hands can be so beautiful as the universal sorrow 
with which men of every race, every class, every creed, 
every nation, heard the tolling of the bells on that fourteenth 
day of September seven years ago. The world paid him 
the highest honor of it's tears. At the hour of his inter- 
ment, the giant industries of America paid him the rare 
tribute of their silence and the shining pathway of steel, 
over which his body passed to its last home amid the lamen- 
tations of the people, was strewn with fragrant flowers. 

Thus it came to pass, as he would most dearly have 
wished, that it could be said of him, as was said of another 
William the Silent: 

"As long as he lived he was the guiding star of a whole 
brave nation, and, when he died, the little children cried in the 
streets." 



W92 











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